Improve Your Productivity at Work

Do you find that you aren’t getting as much done at work as you intend to do? Your to do list may seem like it is never ending, but with some of these tips you may find yourself on the road to better productivity.

Prioritise your to do list

Your to do list may be long but a great way to get more done is to break it up into priorities. First, what must you achieve today? Next, what much you achieve this week, or this month? By breaking this down you will find that your work is not as overwhelming as you once thought.

Do the tasks which take you five minutes first, these do not need to wait. If you know it is a quick task, it should be done at the start of the day to make time for the things that take the most time.

Do the longest and most difficult tasks at your most productive point in the day. This could be at 8am or 3pm, everybody is different. It is important that you do these things in this time as you may find tasks will take you longer at less productive times of the day. So, think about when you usually feel most motivated during the day and complete these tasks then. If those big tasks are overwhelming, try and split them up into smaller parts as this makes it easier to see if you are on track and gives you a better idea of how long it will take and how long you have left.

Set your own deadlines

When you have lots of deadlines looming it is a great idea to set your own deadlines so that you can complete tasks before the actual deadline. This will give you time to check if you have done things right, but also complete things in more of a timely manner, reducing stress.

You could also set yourself time deadlines, if you haven’t got much time to do something, try setting time scales against things and if you didn’t complete it in the set time- evaluate why. Did you give yourself enough time to complete the task? Did you procrastinate? If you feel as if you gave yourself enough time, set it aside and come back to it when you have a bit of free time. Once you have a better idea of how long things take, try setting out your day in this way to achieve more when you are under short time restrictions. When many people have lots to do in a small amount of time they panic about this instead of getting things done. Alongside this, limiting the amount of time you allow yourself for tasks is a great way to be more productive with your time.

Stop multitasking

A big thing which can stop you from being productive is multi-tasking. It is impossible to give your full attention to more than one task at once and attempting this often results in both things taking longer than they needed to.

You should try to plan and organise your week on a Monday to stop you from wasting time during the week on checking what is important and allowing for interruptions.